International Conference explores Hongshan culture's role in Chinese civilization

Guo Dashun, honorary director of the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, discussed evidence of cultural communication, noting that the West Liaohe River Basin was a melting pot for East and West Asian cultures, as reflected in Hongshan's jade and painted pottery.

Dennis Schilling, professor of philosophy at Renmin University of China said Hongshan culture is an important part of the "world heritage of humanity".

"It has significance not only for later Chinese cultural history, but also for our knowledge of the cultural and social development of humanity itself," he said.

Scholar Elizabeth Childs-Johnson, a US Sinologist specializing in Chinese art and archaeology, Jiang Bo, professor at the Institute of Cultural Heritage at Shandong University, and Christian E. Peterson, professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, United States also gave speeches on their studies of Hongshan culture and the broader topic of cultural heritage.